Posted by Andy BenoitDALLAS – As I begin this entry it is 11:15 local Dallas time but it feels closer to 2:00 a.m. There are less than 10 people in the media center; six hours ago more than 2/3 of the 350 or so chairs in here were occupied. Everyone had a lot to transcribe and punch out after Media Day .

This isn’t to say all of the media has gone to bed, though. Currently, hundreds of press members (and hundreds more friends of press members) are over at Dallas’ House of Blues at the NFL media party. If you haven’t been to a House of Blues, just know, it’s gigantic (as party atmospheres go). Every room leads to a bigger room. And, thanks to shrewd lighting, they all have a subtle air of exclusivity. Lastly – and this is quite possibly from the “nobody cares but me” file – the food at the party was endless, evidenced by this photo of what is easily the coolest chips & dip setup I have ever seen.

Despite the raucous band, free food (i.e. free booze) and everyone’s pent up desire to have enough fun to make up for the retched ice storm, the patrons at House of Blues were well behaved. They didn’t have to be ... the NFL-issued Super Bowl schedule brochure listed the party time as 8-midnight, with a wink-wink note that shuttles from the media center to the House of Blues will be running until 2:30 a.m.

There wasn’t much NFL representation at the party, though Jerry Jones was in the house (in a roped off section). Super Bowl Host Committee Chairman Roger Staubach was also there ... and not roped off.

Despite its reputation (and the first four paragraphs of this post), Super Bowl week has not been all about partying. Not even close. The buzz still predominantly pertains to the game, with plenty of side chatter about the CBA and Ben Roethlisberger (rehashed) drama.

Besides, it’d be foolish to party too hard. Buses for the Packers press conference left at 6:45 this morning.

No doubt about it -- the 2010 Dallas Cowboys were bad. They were even worse than their record indicated, though, because the team had such high expectations around it, with many a pundit picking Dallas to represent itself in the Super Bowl.

So it's not unusual to hear Stephen Jones, Cowboys Executive VP and son of Jerry, express disappointment. But are they bad enough to be the worst Cowboys team he and his dad have had since they took the team over? Apparently so.

"In the 21 years we’ve had it, I’d say it’s the worst one we’ve had," Jones said per Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports. "We’ve had bad teams that didn’t do well, but maybe you had that feeling going in. This year, we were so hopeful about our chances, and there we were at 1-5 with no quarterback and pretty much knowing where we’d end up."

So, yeah, that's pretty tough to hear. But it's probably a good thing to make sure everyone know how bad things really were. Doing so helps provide some of the much-needed culture change for Dallas football. But right now, it's especially painful, considering the focus that will center on Dallas for the next 10 days.

"We had such high expectations for this team – and that’s why this is the toughest season we’ve had," Jones said. "The overwhelming thing you think about is what went wrong. And to sit there and have to chew on that, there’s not a lot of happiness."

2011 seems like it should be more fun, if Jason Garrett's run as interim coach is any indication of his future production for the team. The team struggled some after the departure of Wade Phillips, but part and parcel of that is having Jon Kitna at quarterback.

It's clear the offensive and defensive weapons are in place for a return to the postseason, and with an early-round pick, it's possible the Cowboys only get better.

John Fox brought an orange tie to his interview with the Broncos on Wednesday. And after getting delayed by weather twice earlier this week, Fox finally actually made it to Denver. So, what separates him from the other Broncos candidates? "I've been doing it. I have a plan, whether it's a bye week schedule, a training camp schedule. It's not my first rodeo, so to speak," Fox told the Associated Press. "So, I think I do have a blueprint to do it. We've had success, some years more than others. But you know the full body of work I think holds a blueprint for success."

Jason Garrett is the de facto coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Or interim, if you prefer to be technical about it. But it sure seems like that tag will be lifted Thursday, as the Cowboys announced they're calling a press conference at 1:30 PM CST to announce something.

That "something" is all but guaranteed to be an announcement that Dallas is hiring Garrett as it's full-time coach.

Garrett's been the offensive coordinator since 2008 and the interim head coach of the Cowboys since November of 2010 and because of the success he had with the Cowboys (relative to the success that Wade Phillips had anyway), he's the leading candidate to coach them in 2010.

Additionally, if Jerry Jones is hiring Garrett full time, he'll circumvent any issues surrounding a new coaching staff and implementing a system that might revolve around labor issues and the impending lockout.

Many a local Cowboys fan might begrudge the hiring -- Garrett's obviously culpable for some of Phillips' failures too -- and there are other capable candidates out there including ranging from ideal (John Fox) to big-name (Bill Cowher) to rising coordinator (Rob Ryan).

But it seems the possibility of having Garrett go somewhere else and succeed (he turned down approximately 5,000 other jobs during his tenure with Dallas) is too terrifying, and Jerry just believes Garrett's his guy.

1) Jones said he would adhere to the Rooney Rule, but he would times it by two, meaning he would interview Sherman and another out-of-organization minority candidate. Bowles is that candidate.

2) It’s hard to see how Bowles – who was the Cowboys secondary coach from 2005-07 - would actually get this job, but remember, Dallas needs a defensive coordinator as well, and it might be looking at Bowles as a possible candidate for that job.

So, yeah, it’s probably a good idea for Bowles to interview - even if he realizes the head coaching job almost certainly will fall to Garrett.

All season long we’ve been hearing about how teams may be reluctant to make a head coaching change given the uncertainty of the Collective Bargaining negotiations. Owners don’t like the idea of a new staff coming aboard and possibly having to wait until late summer to start working with players.

However, heading into Week 17, we’ve already seen four head coaches canned (Wade Phillips in Dallas, Brad Childress in Minnesota, Josh McDaniels in Denver and Mike Singletary in San Francisco).

There is guaranteed to be at least one other head coaching vacancy after the season, as John Fox’s contract in Carolina expires next week. Marvin Lewis’ deal in Cincinnati also runs out. Many believe that Gary Kubiak will be fired in Houston. And there are questions about the futures of Jeff Fisher in Tennessee, Tony Sparano in Miami, Eric Mangini in Cleveland and Tom Coughlin in New York. It’s possible that 10 teams could be in the market for a new head coach after this season.

There are two ways to look at this as it pertains to the labor negotiations – and both are uplifting. One: the owners really don’t believe that a lockout is on the horizon. Though neither the league nor players would admit it, we got a hint of this sentiment a few weeks ago when the owners extended the deadline for the NFLPA to file a collusion claim against them. The other way to look at it is that if there is a lockout and roughly a third of the league’s owners are bringing in a new coaching staff in 2011, that could subtly influence the owners to get a deal done quicker. Two of the owners who could be searching for head coaches – Jerry Jones and Jerry Richardson – are major power brokers.

Of course, it’s possible that we all misread the significance of a coaching change during a lockout to begin with. Perhaps owners are simply willing to take their lumps in 2011. But confusion with your head coaching situation is a significant lump to take. It’s expensive, chaotic and, if everything is shut down anyway, unnecessary. Problem is, all it takes is one team to decide to endure it, and all the others will follow suit. After all, if one team does it, that team would have first run at all the available head coaching candidates.

Something else to keep in mind: if there is a lockout, it won’t come until March. Unless we’re talking about the Raiders, it’s inconceivable that a team would not fill a head coaching vacancy before then. So teams can still implement their new staffs, those new staffs just might not be able to implement their new systems. Still, those limits would all be planned for ahead of time.

The bottom line is, labor peace or labor war, it’s going to be a busy early offseason as usual for the NFL.

The Sports Business Journal released its annual top-50 most influential list of the movers and shakers in sports today.

Not surprisingly, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is No. 1 on the list. The SBJ explains why:

Put aside the sheriff of the NFL tag, stratospheric TV ratings and his laserlike focus on the in-stadium experience, Roger Goodell has in part the fate of America's most popular game in his hands. The NFL commissioner must hash out a new labor deal to save the 2011 season — in other words, he has the primary influence in what the entire industry is watching most closely.

I wonder, though: if the NFL finds its season canceled next season, will Goodell still be No. 1 next year?

A few other NFLers on the list:

DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFLPA, is No. 5, and this will be a big next six months for him. Can the union outflank the owners, get (most of) what the players want and keep the game going? Or will the owners stick to their principles and make this a tough fight?

Rounding out the top ten is Patriots owner Bob Kraft at No. 9 and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at No. 10. Just think where Jones would be if he didn’t have the Wade Phillips albatross weighing down his ranking.

And finally, Panthers owner Jerry Richardson is No. 15, but it’s got nothing to do with how well his organization has performed this season. It’s all about the labor fight.